Travel Reference
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pyramid, a climbing wall (for ages five years and up) and a dress-up station. One area is
designed for children from infants up to age three.
Museo de Raíz Africana MUSEUM
(Museum of African Ancestry; Click here ; 8am-noon & 1-4:30pm Wed-Sun)
Housed in the 18th-century Casa de los Contrafuertes (House of Buttresses) on Plaza de
San José, this compact museum displays masks, sculptures, musical instruments, docu-
ments and prints that highlight Puerto Rico's connections to West Africa. One exhibit re-
creates living conditions in a slave ship.
Museo Felisa Rincón de Gautier HOUSE MUSEUM
( 787-723-1897; 51 Caleta de San Juan; 9am-4pm Mon-Fri) This museum is an
attractive neoclassical town house that was once the longtime home of San Juan's beloved
mayor, Doña Felisa. She presided over the growth of her city with personal style and polit-
ical acumen for more than 20 years during the Operation Bootstrap days of the 1940s, '50s
and '60s. This historic home is a monument to the life of an accomplished public servant.
Capilla del Cristo CHURCH
(Christ's Chapel; Click here ; Tue afternoon & religious holidays) Over the centur-
ies, tens of thousands of penitents have come to pray for miracles at the Capilla del Cristo,
the tiny outdoor sanctuary adjacent to Parque de las Palomas (Piegon Park). One legend
claims that the chapel was built to prevent people from falling over the city wall and into
the sea. Another claims that citizens constructed the chapel to commemorate a miracle.
As the story goes, a rider participating in a race during the city's San Juan Bautista fest-
ivities miraculously survived after his galloping horse carried him down Calle del Cristo,
off the top of the wall and into the sea. Over the years, believers of the fable have left hun-
dreds of little silver ornaments representing parts of the body - called milagros (miracles)
- on the altar before the statues of the saints as tokens of thanks for being cured of some
infirmity.
You can see the chapel any time, but the iron fence across the front is only open during
the listed hours.
Parque de las Palomas PARK
 
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